Bird Brain

Last night I went to a lecture on the migration of New York's American-Indian(hyphen? no hyphen?) tribes. The room was crowded and too warm and it smelled like pizza...which can be awesome if you are eating pizza and horrid if you are not. However, the lecture was exceptional and my fuzzy little brain focuses better when I'm inking. I decided it was officially time to christen the new sketchbook I got for my birth-day.

I sat next to some skinny and nerdy boy (swoon) who couldn't take his eyes off my page. Never intimidated by attractive onlookers - I kept drawing, fitting each bird into his respective nook and cranny. When the lecture was winding down he leaned over and pinched my elbow in that come-here-I-need-to-whisper-something-to-you way.

"Gee, you must really like birds, huh?"

YES. Yes, I really like birds.

In my defense it was a lecture about migration! I guess I should have been drawing cowboys and Indians. Stay tuned next week ;)

Happy Tuesday.

listening to right this second: "2 legit 2 quit" -- MC Hammer

30 By 30

Today when I woke up I was suddenly 28. twenty-eight. TWENTY-EIGHT!?!?

In two years I'll be #) - I couldn't type that quite right because I closed my eyes and guessed at the keys -- I've got two years to come to rips <--not an intentional typo, but Jen would leave it and I think I should too with it. Yikes. I remember when my mom turned 28 - vomit.

I often have people - mainly young artists, sometimes older artists -- occasionally random non-artists write me to ask how I accomplish everything I get done in a day. The answer is simple: LISTS.
I'm a list making fiend. Sometimes once I accomplish something I go back and add it to a list if it wasn't there before. I live for crossing things out.

A while ago Michelle My Belle posted something sparkly and inspirational, as per her usual. Seriously, is there anything that girl can't do?

I picked up the torch and started this list. Sticking to her parameters, this should be a list of things I'm doing this year -- and it is. I'm just thinking ahead and giving myself 24 months - YIKES ONLY 24 MONTHS?!!? to cross everything off it. We'll see where the next two years lead me. I sincerely hope you're all along for the ride. Thank you for all your support. You make my life more beautiful than it already is -- and I live in Brooklyn, so that's saying something.

1. Have 'Pammie's Jammies' published and on shelves in the Brooklyn's Writers section of 'Books on Court'
   
2. Increase blog readership
3. Have Amber Ink. turning an obvious and clear profit
4. Learn to sew and drape and make awesomemanawsome stuff
   
5. Get mega in shape
6. Take classes at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden
7. Form a group that inspires creativity and beauty
8. Be financially and freelance-ially set to be my own boss without a full time job-job
9. Travel the Mediterranean
   
10. Learn to speak a second language
11. Attend a kindling retreat
    
12. License my art to a major fashion retail brand
13. Fall in love
    
14. Illustrate for a rock star
15. Own an original Mary Blair
16. Be published in a magazine with national circulation
17. Learn to ballroom dance
18. Design a children's facility
19. Send more snail mail
    
20. Throw more theme parties
    
21. Learn to drive
22. Organize wildly amazing dinner club
    
23. Live in Coeur d'Alene
24. Watch every movie that's ever won an Academy Award for 'Best Picture'
25. Make a picture quilt and enter it in a contest
26. Scan and document all design sketches and licensing data so it's at my fingertips whenever I need it. In a word: Max-Organized
    
27. Own a fancy pants SLR camera and know how to use it
28. Give more - volunteer, support charity, randomly and to friends
    
29. Pick one topic a month to study ala 5th grade. So I don't ever worry about not learning.
30. Upcycle more in my decorating as I tackle this little apartment that I want to be magazine ready.

Ode to Chilly Dog Blog

It's once again the time of year where I get to do wild double takes over dogs in their winter finest. I have always freely judged and laughed at owners who dress their dogs in fancy fleeces. This year, thanks to the dog snuggie, my glee has run deeper than ever. One of the very first lessons ever learned at my mother's knee assured me that animals had their own coats and they didn't need ours. Thanks Little Bear (for everything). The thing is... I don't remember New York being as cold-cold as it was this last week!!!

I've never had a New York City dog. My dog was all island.
I was raised side by side with the worlds noblest, greatest, most wonderful dog. He was more than a pet, he was a brother. Seriously, since the dawn of time there has been no greater mammal to ever walk on all fours... If there were any question in your mind I offer up the following:Here he is as the cutest puppy ever. See? Not up for debate.
He appreciated the years I spent undergoing obligatory french-braiding on my mom's torture chair, even if I could not.

I'm sitting on the our front porch steps surrounded by my brother and sister in one of our many hours of puppy worship.
Palette never saw the difference between him as a dog and us as humans. Why should he fetch sticks when we were all throwing sticks? No. He'd throw sticks with us. We could all run into the water and get our own sticks. Pal was all about playing fair.
He was wonderfully patient and willing to waiting his turn, whether it was a family board game or...

opening our stockings Christmas morning... We'd all be gathered on the floor sharing everything we'd found in our sox and he'd stand alert pointing at the last stocking hanging on the hooks. He knew that our stockings were our loot and he was not interested. He wanted that stocking. Somehow he just knew it was his.Pal lived for Christmas. Santa brought him to us when I was eight and Ashton was five and April was a mere three years old. He was a Christmas puppy and he was all about tradition. It's almost as if Santa really had bundled him up and driven him in a sleigh to Hawaii just for us. He would hop and jump and thrill the minute the holiday decoration boxes came out of storage. I truly cannot imagine my childhood without him. He always was and always will be the greatest gift of my youth. I miss him fairly often, whenever I see a good looking Retriever on my Carroll Garden Streets, or when I hang those first few garlands up in my apartment.

Pal's one and only flaw was that he was a wimp. In the middle of Hawaii's winter Oahu temperature might drop to a frigid 62 degrees on the coldest of nights. Pal would stand outside our double screen doors whimpering and whining. How could we be so cruel as to not make him a hat and a coat and some gloves to keep him warm in the wind?

If I were lucky enough to have him here with me today. I'd want him wearing a scarf.

These pups were drawn in freeeeeezing plein air at Madison Square Park.
OH and YES. That is a Scotty in a doggie-hoodie.

listening to right this second: "every breath you take" -- the police

Going to the Birds

I've been peeking at Spoonflower.com off and on for a while now. They have weekly fabric design contests that seem like a hoot to participate in. I'm usually just swamped for time. I like the idea of whipping something up for a challenge in a few hours, helllow Project Runway Obsession... I decided to approach this week's Fabric-of-the-Week challenge in a similar way. I set a timer and gave myself three hours. Here is what happened:

The Color Palette:

The Challenge: Use It.
Oh. Use it to draw some birds. In a repeat.

The Sketches:

The End Result:
listening to right this second: "all will be well" -- the gabe dixon band